Inseparable
Our Town Brewery

I have been a Townie (club member) since they opened & as such, I try to stop in ~ weekly for a Crowler of their latest beer. I am also their only reviewer on this site, which makes it important that I get it right when doing a review. It is kind of a double-plus bonus in that Jeff Lebo gets the spent Crowlers for his CANlection while each one furthers The CANQuest (tm) for me.

From the Crowler/CAN: "1-9".

I was very excited to Crack! open the vent on this latest Crowler, but in doing so, I got a fingertip spritz! I then CANducted a slow, gentle C-Line Glug into my awaiting glass, being careful not to have any runs, drips or errors. That is a CANmon CANcern with these oversized CANs with their larger & further-back vents, but I have adapted & become adept. It evinced a pseudo-cascade that ended up forming just under two fingers of dense, foamy, rocky, deep-tan/light-brown head with very good retention. Color was Very Dark Brown to Black/Opaque (SRM = > 34, < 44) with cola highlights at the edges. Nose had the usual coffee-like roastiness, but this time, the hops seemed to be holding their own, rather than getting overwhelmed. It smelled like a liquified Girl Scout Thin Mint, just in time for cookie season! 8=O Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was definitely roasty with a bitter smokiness, but just as with the nose, the hops were holding their own, giving it a pronounced minty-pine coolness. Mint chocolate chip came immediately to mind. Mint & dark chocolate for the uninitiated. No ice cream, though. Just the flavors, which was enough. I generally eschew beers in this style since, as a hophead, the hops tend to be wasted in the face of the onslaught of roasty malts. Not in this case! I was getting a solid minty hoppiness throughout, which was a good thing since I had a quart of it to drink. ;=)
A basic tenet of The CANQuest (tm) is that every drop must be CANsumed in order for it to count. I dislike the idea of a drainpour & have yet to CANduct one, although there have been many CANdidates. This one was not even a CANsideration, but a quart CAN be daunting! We used to score glass quarts back inna day as underage imbibers, but now, looking at the volume of a quart gives me pause. Old age has set in.
I was really digging the coolness of its finish! My sinuses seemed to fill with a cool mintiness & as such, each inhalation/exhalation was like a cool blast of fresh air, like going outside right NOW & taking a deep breath. Whoo! I do so every night during my bike ride to work & it is exhilarating. I brush my teeth just before leaving to really enhance the experience, much like what this was doing for me. I follow up with a cuppa joe at the 2.5-hour mark & that initial jolt of coffee on top of the mintiness really perks me up just as this was doing. Finish was dry, but not gasping. It maintained a coffee-mintiness throughout, so there was no question of sweetness. This was how I wanted them to brew this style when it was a big thing. If it returns, may it be like this one! YMMV.